Away my unbelieving fear

Representative Text

1 Away my unbelieving fear;
Fear shall in me no more take place,
My Savior doth not yet apper;
He hides the brightness of his face:
But shall I therefore let him go,
And basely to the tempter yield?
No,in the strength of Jesus, no
I never will give up my shield.

2 Altho, the vine its fruit deny,
Altho, the olive yield no oil;
The withering fig-tree droop and die--
The field illude the tiller's toil;
The empty stall no heard afford,
And perish all the bleating race;
Yet will I triumph in the Lord,
The God of my salvation praise.

3 Barren altho' my soul remain
And no one bud of grace appear,
No fruit of all my toil and pain,
But sin and only sin is here.
Altho' my gifts and comforts lost,
My blooming hopes cut off I see,
Yet will I in my Savior trust,
And glory that he dy'd for me.

4 In hope believing, against hope,
Jesus my Lord, my God I claim;
Jesus my strength shall lift me up;
Salvation is in Jesus' name,
To me he soon shall bring it nigh,
My soul shall soon out-strip the wind,
On sings of love mount up on high,
And leave the world and sin behind.

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

Text Information

Notes

Away, my unbelieving fear. C. Wesley. [Confidence.] Hab. iii., 17, 18, 19, is the subject of this hymn. It appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1742, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines, and again in the Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. ii. p. 198. It did not form part of the Wesleyan Hymn Book until the revised ed. 1875, although, through having been given in M. Madan's Psalms and Hymns, 17(30, it had been in common use in the Church of England and amongst Nonconformists for more than one hundred years. Its modern use is limited.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

TALLIS CANON is one of nine tunes Thomas Tallis (PHH 62) contributed to Matthew Parker's Psalter (around 1561). There it was used as a setting for Psalm 67. In the original tune the melody began in the tenor, followed by the soprano, and featured repeated phrases. Thomas Ravenscroft (PHH 59) publish…